The 58th Rally Finland, the ninth rally of the
2008 World Rally Championship season
The 2008 World Rally Championship was the 36th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 15 rallies and began on 24 January, with the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally.
Frenchman Sébastien Loeb successfully retained the Drivers' W ...
took place between July 31 and August 3, 2008. The event was the first rally held after a six-week mid season break. The rally was based in the city of
Jyväskylä
Jyväskylä () is a city and municipality in Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is located about 150 km north-east from Tampere, the third largest city in Finland; and about 270 km north from Helsinki, the capital of ...
in the centre of Finland with the
special stages held on fast gravel roads in the lake district area of the country. The winner was the reigning world champion
Sébastien Loeb
Sébastien Loeb (; born 26 February 1974) is a French professional rallying, rally, auto racing, racing and rallycross driver. He is the most successful driver in the World Rally Championship (WRC), having won the world championship a record nin ...
, who became only the fourth non
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
n driver to win the event in fifty-eight runnings. It was his sixth win of the season and reduced the gap in the championship standings between himself and Finland's
Mikko Hirvonen
Mikko Hirvonen (born 31 July 1980) is a Finnish former rally driver, and a current Rally-Raid driver, who drove in the World Rally Championship. He placed third in the drivers' championship and helped Ford to the manufacturers' title in both 2 ...
to just one point. Hirvonen finished in second, with
Chris Atkinson
Chris Atkinson (born 30 November 1979 in Bega, New South Wales, Australia) is a professional rally driver. In the World Rally Championship (WRC), Atkinson drove for the Subaru World Rally Team between 2004 and 2008. His best finish on an indi ...
taking the third podium spot for the
Subaru World Rally Team. This would prove to be Subaru’s final podium in the world championship.
Event
Day one
The event started with a short superspecial stage on Thursday evening - which was won by Sébastien Loeb - before the first full day of action on Friday. The first stage on Friday demonstrated the competitive nature of the rally, with Loeb and Hirvonen setting identical times, and
Jari-Matti Latvala
Jari-Matti Latvala (born 3 April 1985) is a Finnish rally driver who has competed in the World Rally Championship (WRC). His co-driver for most of his career was Miikka Anttila, who co-drove for Latvala between the 2003 Rallye Deutschland and 2019 ...
only finishing three seconds behind them. However, Latvala was the first big casualty, hitting a rock on SS3 and damaging the suspension - an accident that put him out for the day and angered his
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
team boss
Malcolm Wilson (rally)
Malcolm Irving Wilson, Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 17 February 1956) is a British former rally driver and current owner of team and constructor M-Sport. He is the father of former World Rally Championship driver Matthew Wilson. He h ...
. Meanwhile, Loeb was eking out a narrow advantage by winning every special stage until SS8. Hirvonen was also driving flat out and matched Loeb's time on SS6 and took his first outright stage win on the 7.86 mile test at Urria. At the end of day one, Loeb had built up a useful lead of 14.4 seconds, although Hirvonen had not given up hope. Behind the two leaders saw a three way battle between the two
Stobart Ford
The M-Sport Ford World Rally Team (formerly M-Sport World Rally Team, Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team and Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team) is the privately run World Rally Championship team of M-Sport, the firm run by Malcolm Wilson that was previ ...
drivers,
Henning Solberg
Henning Solberg (born 8 January 1973) is a Norwegian rally and rallycross driver. Together with his female co-driver Ilka Minor, he currently competes in the World Rally Championship (WRC) with cars of M-Sport.
Solberg is the older brother of ...
and
Gigi Galli
Gianluigi Galli (born 13 January 1973), better known as Gigi Galli, is an Italian rally driver, best known for his spectacular driving style. He comes from, and lives in Livigno, Italy.
Career
Galli debuted in the World Rally Championship at the ...
, and Loeb's teammate
Dani Sordo
Daniel "Dani" Sordo Castillo (born 2 May 1983) is a Spanish rally driver. He competes in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Motorsport. He achieved his first WRC victory at the 2013 Rallye Deutschland.
Career
Sordo began in motocross wh ...
. These three were covered by only twelve seconds. The two
Subaru World Rally Team drivers,
Petter Solberg
Petter Solberg (born 18 November 1974) is a Norwegian former professional rally and rallycross driver.
Solberg debuted in the World Rally Championship in 1998 and was signed by the Ford factory team in 1999. The following year, Solberg started ...
and
Chris Atkinson
Chris Atkinson (born 30 November 1979 in Bega, New South Wales, Australia) is a professional rally driver. In the World Rally Championship (WRC), Atkinson drove for the Subaru World Rally Team between 2004 and 2008. His best finish on an indi ...
were having their own private battle, just over ninety seconds behind the leader.
Suzuki's Per-Gunnar Andersson was in the final points paying position despite suffering a huge spin on SS2. Impressive performances were made by privateers
Urmo Aava and
Andreas Mikkelsen
Andreas Mikkelsen (born 22 June 1989) is a Norwegian rally driver. He is currently competing in the World Rally Championship-2 for Toksport World Rally Team. He previously drove for the factory teams of Volkswagen, Citroën and Hyundai in the Wo ...
, with both featuring in the points earlier on day one - Aava was third after SS4 with Mikkelsen in fifth. However they both crashed out near the end of day one - Aava in SS9 and Mikkelsen in SS10.
Day two
The battle between Loeb and Hirvonen continued throughout day two with the pair regularly setting fastest times. They were opening up a big lead to the drivers behind them, with Hirvonen describing the pace as "crazy...how much longer can this go on for, I don't know." By the end of the day Loeb had pulled out another four seconds to take his lead to eighteen seconds. Most of this time was gained when Hirvonen stalled at the start of SS20.
Behind the leaders, Gigi Galli had been drawing away in the battle for third before an accident in the Kakaristo stage (which was a truncated and reversed version of Ouninpohja) put him out of the rally. After Galli, PG Andersson also rolled at the same corner. The main mover of the day was Subaru driver Chris Atkinson who leapt from seventh to third on the leaderboard by the end of day two. Dani Sordo was only a second behind in fourth but was having to be cautious in order to score manufacturer points. Henning Solberg was slipping back in fifth place while his brother Petter was one place behind in sixth. Privateer driver
Matti Rantanen had moved up to seventh due to the retirements of others and
Toni Gardemeister
Toni Gardemeister (born 31 March 1975) is a Finnish professional rally driver in the World Rally Championship. After previously competing for SEAT's, Mitsubishi's, Škoda's and Ford's factory teams, as well as for privateer teams, he joined the ...
was keeping his
Suzuki in the points despite having problems with his gearbox.
Day three
Results
Special stages
All dates and times are
EEST
Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes it ...
(
UTC+3
UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours later than the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
Following the ISO 8601 standard, a time with this offset would be wri ...
).
Championship standings after the event
Drivers' championship
Manufacturers' championship
References
External links
Resultsfrom the official sit
wrc.com
{{2008 World Rally Championship season
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
Rally Finland, 2008